"Will you look at it?" she
cried. "Only imagine her not getting my dress ready, and then sending me
such a petticoat as this! Ellen would pay fifty dollars for it and
never blink. I suppose mother has had it all my life, and I never saw it
before."
"Go take your bath and put on those things," said the Bird Woman.
"Forget everything and be happy. She is not insane. She is embittered.
She did not understand how things would be. When she saw, she came at
once to provide you a dress. This is her way of saying she is sorry
she did not get the other. You notice she has not spent any money, so
perhaps she is quite honest in saying she has none."
"Oh, she is honest!" said Elnora. "She wouldn't care enough to tell an
untruth. She'd say just how things were, no matter what happened."
Soon Elnora was ready for her dress. She never had looked so well as
when she again headed the processional across the flower and palm decked
stage of the high school auditorium. As she sat there she could have
reached over and dropped a rose she carried into the seat she had
occupied that September morning when she entered the high school. She
spoke the few words she had to say in behalf of the class beautifully,
had the tiny wink ready for Billy, and the smile and nod of recognition
for Wesley and Margaret. When at last she looked into the eyes of a
white-faced woman next them, she slipped a hand to her side and raised
her skirt the fraction of an inch, just enough to let the embroidered
edge of a petticoat show a trifle.
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